In tonight's opening segment about the flaws in our criminal justice system, Rachel explained why insisting on justice is a matter of more principled politics. It takes the will of human values and accountability to history to counter the accusation that opponents of injustice are siding with criminals and monsters.
This is politics, but it's politics of a different kind. This is values politics -- about who we are as a country.
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Because it's not about whether or not you like the person who the guy in the uniform is beating up. What this is about is the fact that the guy in the uniform is us. That is in our name. This is a democracy; government of, by, and for the people.
What Sheriff's deputies did to this visitor (a visitor!) to the L.A. County Jail-- that's us. The death penalty? That's us! Killing Cameron Todd Willingham? That's us.
Above, a new ACLU report confirms deputy-on-inmate brutality in L.A. County jails. More videos are presented in this pdf, and the full report is here (note: a little slow to load, almost 30 page pdf). The KTLA investigation into "the 3000 Boys" begins here and you can follow the in-story navigation to the three more parts in the series.
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We no longer seem to be the country of Morals. We torture, we beat, we humiliate those that are "not on our side, or like us!" How can we remain the "shining light" when we act just like every other country?
We need to remember how we were before the Bush Administration. I have never cringed more in my life than seeing audiences react at the Republican Debates.
This is not the country I grew up in.
American is not a "shining light" to the rest of the world, nor has it ever been. This is one of those popular aphorisms that does not actually hold water when held up to the light.
The country we were before the Bush Administration? The country who dropped the aromic bomb? Or the country who napalmed Vietnamese citizens? Or the country of Jim Crow and Tuskegee? Or the country of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena?
We have never been the country of morals. We're pretty good at imagining we are, though. The best, in fact. USA #1!
What's going on in LA county jail, is nothing that hasn't gone on in other cities and is truly representative of the "over-all" societal decline! Those that have "power or money" (think: Banksters) - feel as though they have "the right" to screw over everyone else, because "they can"! Over-all, I'd like to believe that the police (all over) are there sworn to "serve & protect" - but there are enough rotten apples in the barrel, that cast aspersions on the whole lot!!
I am horrified by the absolute brutality.
Does this type of job attract brutal men (yes, and women) or does it create them?
The hypocrisy in our country is appalling. The "moral" right is appalled by "Shweddy Balls" ice cream, "bathroom" humor, & crude language....but cheer for executions, want more gun rights, don't want to help the poor or uninsured, and are the most intolerant of people unlike themselves. These so-called Christians disappoint and astound me.
This type of treatment is why non-violent offenders (not unlike that woman's son) go in the system non-violent and come out virtual psychopaths.
Do I think jail should be cozy or fun? Hell no. It's jail, and if you did something wrong you deserve to go there and not have a good time. However, should you be savagely beaten anytime the mood hits the warden or the deputies? No.
I'm scared @!$%#less of police. I have no legitimate reason to be, but that makes no difference, as they have no legitimate reason ever to beat and torture people, and yet they do.
Here is a graphic example of why Black Folks don't stand a chance in the justice system.
Gail Owens: "She was sentenced to die after being found guilty in 1986 of arranging to have her husband killed. She was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on September 28, 2010."
Sidney Porterfield: "The man who actually killed her husband, Sidney Porterfield, now 68, also was sentenced to death and has been on death row since, according to Dorinda Carter, spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction. Owens was a convicted in 1986 of being an accessory to first-degree murder."
Guess what, Gail is getting paroled off DEATH ROW and Sidney is still scheduled for death.
Guess what, Gail is white and Sidney is black.
Guess what, this kind of stuff happens 24/7/365 to black folks. How is it the mastermind gets paroled and the lackey still gets death? If not for her, then her husband would still be alive.
Black folk don't want special treatment. They just want to be treated the same. Same with the President. Why can't he be treated the same as all the other Presidents?
When one is convicted and then incarcerated , that inmate/prisoner has been totally removed from society to do extended time in an institution to "pay" for his crime. Is it written or part of the training that a deputy (or other prison employee) is free to accuse, punish/abuse and report a falsified infraction by an inmate with impunity? If it weren't for video equipment some of us would still believe the victim/suspect was "resisting arrest" and./or "threatened the life" of the police officer. Or probably the worst "the throwaway gun"! Some suspects shot by a policeman are reported to have pointed a gun at the policeman which justified his being shot to death. Even when an incident is caught on video, law enforcement defends their action as justified. My heart goes out to those who are doing the right thing.
If this is true, then I can understand why so many people hate this country. I am as American as anyone can get (American Indian born in this country) in my mid-50s, and almost 3/4 of the "encounters" -over 30- I've had with the police have been bogus. I've been threatened, given tickets for false reasons (broken tail-lights that weren't, etc.), harassed, profiled, and know of many incidences worse than we've experienced. Let me put it this way... stopped over 30 times, but only once over the speed limit and twice for an expired tag, and a couple of times for a bad light - that were valid.
As far as I'm concerned, they're all pigs until they prove otherwise, and if I even see a cop, I feel fear (and they don't have any reason to give me trouble that I know of).
In our experience, Fuhrman was the norm rather than the exception. They learn to be adept liars, and are good at getting people to think they're "good guys" rather than evil (just like the dominionists).
I don't know what happened here... when I went to post it, the system kicked me out and what I wrote had vanished. So I re-wrote the post and would like to delete this one.
If this is true, I can well understand why so many people hate America. I'm about as American as anyone can get - born here and American Indian by birth (same for my wife). Our experiences are such that they fill us with fear every time we see one.
I am in my mid 50s, and I've had bogus encounters with the police since I was a teen. I've had over 30 such encounters, and out of all of them, only a handful have been justified - once stopped for over the speed limit, twice for an expired tag, and a couple of times with burned-out light bulbs. The rest... profiled (and they admitted it), broken tail-lights that weren't (and aggressively threatened), and so on. I've paid hundreds in fines and even had to go to court because of bogus stops. Plus I've been threatened a few times (beyond being stopped), harassed, and even nearly attacked with a baton by police without valid reasons. I have heard of far worse experiences than I've had.
We usually call them pigs, and that because of the things we've experienced. In my tribe's experience, Mark Fuhrman was the norm and that the pigs are good at hiding their real nature.
I also know a lot more about history than what they teach you in the public schools. This country has always had a history of claiming to be so great, but the reality is far from it. The Promise of America... I can believe in that. The reality... another story.